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Report: Cleric swap for hostages


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Ba'asyir was sentenced to four years in jail in February.
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(CNN) -- Arabic-language news channel Al-Jazeera has reported hostage-takers in Iraq are demanding Indonesia's government release Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Ba'asyir in exchange for two female hostages.

Al-Jazeera aired new video of the two women Saturday, along with four other electricity workers recently seized in Iraq by a group identifying itself as the Islamic Army in Iraq.

The group has claimed to have recently kidnapped 10 workers -- the two Indonesians, six Iraqis and two Lebanese.

Indonesian authorities confirmed the two women shown Thursday on Al-Jazeera were Indonesian nationals.

Ba'asyir was sentenced in February to four years in jail for his involvement in plotting to topple the Indonesian government.

According to Indonesian government officials, Ba'asyir is the spiritual leader for the al Qaeda-linked terror network, Jemaah Islamiyah -- a charge he has repeatedly rejected, denying also that the group even exists.

Indonesian authorities have linked JI to several major terror attacks in the country, including the September 9 suicide car bombing near the Australian Embassy which killed at least nine people and wounded over 180 in Jakarta.

JI has also been linked to the August 2003 JW Marriott Hotel bombing in Jakarta, which killed 12 people, and the October 12, 2002 Bali nightclub bombings, which killed over 200 people.

Most of those killed in the Bali bombings were tourists, including 88 Australians.

Earlier this year, prosecutors said they plan to prosecute Ba'asyir for the Bali bombings as well as subsequent terrorist attacks.

Al-Jazeera said Thursday the abductors demanded that their Lebanese employer, Qaswa al-Bawadi Company, stop doing business in Iraq.

Qaswa al-Bawadi then issued a statement on Al-Jazeera appealing to the abductors to release its captives and stating that the company does business with the Iraqi private sector only and that it has no dealings with U.S. forces in Iraq.

-- -- CNN Senior Editor Waffa Munayyer and Producer Kathy Quijano contributed to this report


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